


when the thrill is gone, baby

by onlykaspbrakk



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:55:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28926171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onlykaspbrakk/pseuds/onlykaspbrakk
Summary: Johnny and Daniel on Valentine's day
Relationships: Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Comments: 10
Kudos: 80





	when the thrill is gone, baby

**Author's Note:**

> yes i know i am a month early for valentines day, but if i don't post this right now i will forget i even wrote it and it will never get posted. this fic is shorter than most i write but i didn't really want this to get to long, i have a hard time committing to long works but i have a really good idea for one i think so we'll see how that goes

Johnny hated Valentine’s day. He hated seeing all the fucking pink everywhere, and the couples holding hands, and the stupid bears. Most of all, he hated being single during it. He had forgotten what it was like, the last two years he had been busy picking out a nice present for Ali and then buying her a nice dinner in hopes she might blow him (she never did, but a guy can dream). Instead of eating crazy expensive food, he was sitting in the bathroom at a party, listening to Stevie Nicks on his walkman. 

Sid had wanted him out of the house, it was Valentine’s day after all, but Johnny had nowhere to go. Ali was probably out sucking face with Daniel fucking LaRusso. Not that Johnny was still mad at Daniel. He put up a good fight and his sensei saved Johnny’s life, so he had to respect the kid some. He wished he was the one spending the day with Ali. His world was green with envy, as his mom had said to him on more than one occasion. All day at school his friends had been pressuring him to come to this party, he hadn’t really wanted to, but it wasn’t really like he had anything better, so he thought it over and decided to go. It wasn’t the ideal situation but he showed. 

He instantly regretted it. It had been full of couples and he instantly started feeling sorry for himself. After a drink or two, he opted to be alone, finding solitude in an empty bathroom and his headphones. The music was too loud and he was wishing he had just stayed home. 

When someone stumbled into the bathroom, Johnny was suddenly aware that he had forgotten to lock the door, “Oh shit, I’m sorry, I can just-” the kid pointed to the door. 

“LaRusso? Are you drunk?” 

“Johnny? What’s it to you?”

This fucking kid, “It’s nothing to me, just asking.”

“Ali broke up with me. Not drunk either. For the record. Just clumsy.” 

“Oh. Sorry,” Johnny wasn’t sure what he was apologizing for, but it felt like the right thing to say 

“Not your fault,” Daniel slid down the wall, “She crashed my car and found a sudden interest in college boys apparently.”

Johnny could have told him that she wasn’t a good driver, but of course he never asked. 

“What are you listening to?” Daniel reached over and grabbed the headphones before Johnny could stop him, “Rocket Man? Never took you to be an Elton fan. God, this song is so good.”

Johnny mumbled something about not actually liking him, while also thinking that it made perfect sense that Daniel did. Daniel probably liked Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen. 

Johnny told him just that. 

“What’s wrong with them? Billy Joel is great, you know, I’m the downtown man.”

“And what? Ali’s the uptown girl?” 

“Yeah, something like that. So, what are you doing in the bathroom listening to music, there’s music and people out there, ya know.”

“Are you always this nosey?”

“That’s a perfectly normal question. Do I get to know why Mr. Popular is in here alone or do I gotta guess?” 

“Just didn’t feel like it tonight,” Johnny shrugged. It wasn’t a lie, wasn’t fully the truth either. 

“Me neither,” Daniel paused, “Hey wanna get out of here? We could go get some food or something. Your treat.” 

Johnny sighed, “My treat?” 

“Downtown man, remember? You can be tonight's uptown girl.” 

“Do you always make the ladies pay for their own meals?” 

“Only when they’re dressed in Ralph Lauren.”

Johnny sighed, standing up, offering his hand to Daniel. He hoped he didn’t think much of it, “We take my car.” 

Daniel shrugged, “What are you waiting for?”

They left out the backdoor. Johnny didn’t want to be spotted by his friends, certainly not leaving with Daniel LaRusso. That would leave them asking questions he either wasn’t ready to answer or didn’t know what the answer even was. He didn’t even know why he said yes to Daniel. Sure, he was over wanting to kick his ass, but it wasn’t like they were friends or anything

Now, Johnny sat in the driver’s seat with Daniel flipping through Johnny’s music collection, humming whenever he found something he liked. 

Johnny was pretty happy with the stuff he had, and judging by Daniel’s responses to it, he guessed he agreed. 

“You can play whatever you want,” Johnny looked over just in time to see Daniel light up, ending up putting a REO Speedwagon tape in.

“This fine?”

Johnny resisted scoffing at Daniel, “Yeah, this is fine.” 

He tapped his fingers along to the music as he drove to the nearest McDonald’s, ordering them both burgers, fries, and upon Daniel’s request, ice cream. 

Then he parked the car so they ate their food. Sure, they could have gone inside, but it was a nice night and Johnny wanted to enjoy it. They had found a tree and sat under it, the ground was hard but damnit if Johnny was gonna let Daniel eat in his car. 

“This is good, thanks, John.”

“Dude, no one calls me that.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s why I did it.” 

“Okay, Danny. You’re welcome.” 

Daniel rolled his eyes and lightly shoved Johnny, “No one calls me that.”

“That’s why I did it.” Johnny smiled at him, licking his ice cream. It probably wasn’t a good idea to order it now. They should have just got their food here and then went somewhere with more options than vanilla. It was too late now. 

“So, where are you going to college?”

“Me? Oh, I don’t know yet. What about you?”

“I don’t know. Bobby’s going to fucking Montana or some shit to, I don’t know, read the bible? They all got plans, and I don’t have a clue what I want to do.” 

“I feel the same way, man. I got all this money saved up and I don’t even know what I wanna do or where I wanna go. It’s so twisted, man. That we’re forced to decide this so young, what if I change my mind?” 

“You should be a hairdresser, because they love to talk, talk, talk. And you never shut up.”

“Ha ha, very funny, Johnny.” 

They fell into a comfortable silence. Both perfectly content to sit on the grass licking the ice cream dripping down their hand. Johnny thinks he could live in this moment. If Daniel were Ali, he’d reach over and hold his hand, maybe lick the ice cream from his lips. But Daniel wasn’t Ali. He was Daniel, and Johnny couldn’t do things like that with him. Not that he had the interest to, anyway. He wasn’t gay or anything like that. 

“What are you thinking about?”

In all honesty, he was thinking about his mom. Sometimes he feels like the biggest let down he knows, and that he wasn’t anything like the boy his mom raised him to be. He wishes they were still living in shitty apartments and he could play in the dirt and have popsicle juice running down his chin. Now he was months away from being 18 and he didn’t have a fucking clue about anything. 

It made him feel better that Daniel didn’t know what he was doing either. LaRusso seemed like the type of guy to have everything all together, made him feel better about himself. 

“Daniel?”

“Yeah?” 

“Do you ever feel like, I don’t know, you’re letting everyone down?” 

“All the time, man, all the time,” Daniel sighed, turning to look at Johnny, “I wish we would have been friends.”

“I wish we would have been friends too,” Johnny did. He thought about it all the time, late at night when he woke up from a dream where he couldn’t breathe. “I think we could be friends now.”

“Really?” 

Johnny shrugged, “Why not. We’re here now aren’t we?”

“Yeah, we are here now.” 

“You know what I think?”

“What do you think, John?”

“I think we should forget about the past and forget about the future, and live now.” 

“That’s pretty deep, man.” 

“Well, it’s the truth.”

“You’re smarter than you think you are, Johnny.”

If Johnny was going to take his earlier words to heart, then this was okay. If only the now mattered, it was okay for him to kiss the fond look from his face. So that’s what Johnny did, he leaned forward and kissed him. 

He tasted like the salt from the fries and the sugar from the ice cream, but he also tasted like Daniel. Like a kick to the face. 

Maybe Johnny liked Valentine’s day after all, just like maybe the whole thing wasn’t actually about Ali. Just a little of it might have been about the brunette with the hand on his thigh and the mouth attached to his own.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on tumbr [here](https://arthurscobra.tumblr.com/)


End file.
